Doctor Who Christmas special includes nod to Timeless Child reveal

During Chris Chibnall's time as showrunner, the Timeless Child arc revealed the Doctor is not a Time Lord at all, but the Timeless Child, a being of unknown origins, upending everything we thought we knew about them and their past regenerations.

The 2023 Christmas special, The Church on Ruby Road, reveals that Ruby, played by Millie Gibson, was adopted by mum Carla (Michelle Greenidge) after she fostered her when she was left outside the church on Christmas Eve.

The Doctor says: "I’m adopted. Yeah, I only found out recently."

Carla asks, "That's a coincidence! Do you know who your parents are?" with the Doctor responding, "No, I was abandoned."

"Oh you’re a foundling, just like Ruby!" Carla responds, with Ruby nervously asking her to stop talking about coincidences.

The Timeless Child was also referenced in the 60th anniversary special Wild Blue Yonder, with returning showrunner Russell T Davies making it clear that he wasn't planning on "unwriting" Chibnall.

Speaking about his work being referenced, Chibnall previously told RadioTimes.com: "[Russell] had told me that there was a reference to Flux.

"It's really beautiful when things like that happen, definitely. It was one of the things we talked about, Steven [Moffat], Russell and I, when we met up, and it was a thing Steven was saying, you don't feel like the work you've done on the show is Doctor Who, because that's the work you've done.

"So he's like, all of the episodes he's written, all the episodes he’s showrun, it’s like everything else is Doctor Who and then his bit is just the thing he did, and it doesn't feel legitimately part of Doctor Who, and it's really weird.

"So when you do get things that crop up, that kind of reference - and actually, when I would drop in references to Steven’s stories, or something Russell had done, I would get texts from them.

"Steven would go, 'I was mentioned in Doctor Who! Something I thought of was mentioned in Doctor Who!' It's great. You know, 'I exist!' It's really true.

"Russell, as well, [I] would get messages going, 'Oh, I got mentioned! The thing I wrote got mentioned!' So it's really lovely when that happens, and I definitely felt that when we did that in The Power of the Doctor, as well.

"It's really powerful, and how you deploy that, and when you deploy that, is really interesting because it's that weird push and pull between being new and being part of a continuum. And that's one of the great, great things about Doctor Who."

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